


Goodbye

by Milkbonez



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Character Turned Into a Ghost, Gen, Spoilers, because they are dead, but here we are, for ch 1, i wasn't sure if Major Character Death counted if the death isn't described here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-14
Updated: 2019-07-14
Packaged: 2020-06-28 10:49:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19810726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Milkbonez/pseuds/Milkbonez
Summary: The first trial and execution at the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles have concluded. Two of the sixteen students are dead. However, their souls have stuck around the school to spend some time saying farewell.





	Goodbye

Kaede’s ghost hovered to the bench of her piano. Its cover was still off; the cold, smooth keys shone in the moonlight like a grimace. She reached for them, and her hand fazed through. “It’s really unfortunate,” she muttered, more to herself than to Rantaro, who hovered a few feet behind her. “I never did get to play this…”

She chuckled hollowly, without cheer, tears coming to her eyes. “I remember my piano at home. I was so ready to see it again. To expose the mastermind so we could all escape… We would become friends, and I could play for everyone.”

Rantaro drew near and gathered her up in a hug. A wordless hug. What could he say as he held her weeping against his chest?

“H-How… How can you not be angry at me?” she said, voice uneven. “For killing you…”

“What would be the point?” Rantaro replied. “Me being angry isn’t going to revive either of us, and it isn’t going to set the other students free. This is tough for both of us. We need to lean on each other. We’re all we have right now.”

Taken aback by his sentiments, Kaede pressed herself deeper into him, and his embrace tightened.

Both looked up and around when the door to the Ultimate Pianist’s Lab opened. Shuichi stepped into the room, pale moonlight reflecting off of wet streaks on his cheeks. He gazed around the dark piano room as if taking everything in.

“Shuichi.” Kaede pulled away from Rantaro and moved toward her grieving classmate, an arm outstretched.

Rantaro admonished, “Wait! We don’t know what will happen if you touch him…”

Kaede lowered her arm with a crestfallen sigh. They both watched Shuichi go to the looming rack of CDs in the wall. Scanning the rack, he finally picked one. “Here it is.” He put the disc into the player in the corner of the room and moved back a few steps. A gentle melody sounded.

She, of course, recognized it right away. “Clair de Lune…”

She stepped aside when Shuichi shuffled around to the piano as if in a trance, and she came near, stopping within two meters of him. The song continued to play, and he was silent for a minute, his body relaxed. Then she saw his shoulders stiffen, his hands close into fists. He breathed in a single ragged breath and failed to choke back a sob. She placed a hand on her chest and cried with him.

It was some time before he spoke in a bare whisper. “You believed in me… You want me… to believe in myself.”

“I do, Shuichi,” she said, though she knew he couldn’t hear her.

“Believe in myself…” Shuichi took a breath to even out his voice. “I don’t know if…” He lifted his head with another breath. “No, I can. I _will_. I have to believe in myself. I won’t be afraid anymore. From here on, I won’t run away from the truth. I will face it… for everyone.”

Kaede’s eyes widened at his conviction. She glanced over at Rantaro, who stood by the piano with his arms folded. He raised a hand to brush away his tears, but he was beaming.

Shuichi finished, “I won’t give up. For your sake, Kaede, I won’t give up… And that’s a promise.” He choked on his words a bit. “I promise…”

The song looped once, its soft tune meandering among them for several more quiet moments. When it stopped, Shuichi let out a deep sigh and turned to go. This time, Kaede refused to move aside, letting him pass through her, much to Rantaro’s horror. Her legs became jelly; with a gasp, she hugged herself to avoid collapsing. Shuichi shuddered hard and stole a backwards glance to the windows. His brow furrowed when he saw that they were closed, and he continued his exit.

Rantaro hurried to Kaede’s side, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Are you—”

“I’m fine,” she insisted. “That was… like an icy electric burn through me. I don’t recommend it.”

Both turned to the open door, where Shuichi was standing. He turned to look back at the piano one last time. “Goodbye, Kaede.” The door clicked shut behind him.

The pair was silent, Shuichi’s last goodbye hanging in the air. Kaede looked up at Rantaro’s face, his mouth set in a flat line, a single tear lingering on his cheek. His eyes flicked towards her; she looked away. He sighed. “Say, Kaede. I’m gonna go to the dorms, maybe keep an eye on everyone, or zone out. Do you want some more time here?”

“Yeah… Yeah, I do.”

“Alright, then. I’ll… catch up with you later.”

“Rantaro?” Kaede put her arms around him again. “Thanks for… making a tough time easier. And I know the others are grieving for you, too, in their own way.”

He blinked at that before hugging back. “Thank you for that… I’m sure you’re right.” Letting go, he hovered to the door. “Take as long as you need. You know where to find me.”

Kaede stayed behind in her lab for what felt like hours. The sky was changing from midnight blue to a deep wine purple. The moonlight shifted across the sky. At last, she was ready to leave. She fazed through the door and headed downstairs, her steps making no sound at all. It probably would have been faster to simply fly through the wall, but it felt more normal this way. The halls of the academy were totally barren, as if the darkness suppressed all noise.

All noise, except footsteps coming from the east wing.

Kaede paused at the entrance hall to listen, tense, before remembering that she wouldn’t be discovered. She glided forward into the inky blackness of the east wing. Whoever it was, they were coming up from the basement. Kaede paused near a window. The light leaking in was faint, but she would be able to get a glimpse of them.

Kokichi?

Kokichi plodded past her, his white suit standing out in the utter darkness. Kaede followed a few steps behind him. What was he doing in the basement? And what was he holding in his hand? She strained her eyes to see, but she didn’t want to get so close that she accidentally touched him. She only tagged along with him on his slow trek across the academy to the ascending staircase.

He would be the second visitor to her lab.

Each step he took was careful and deliberate as he made his way to the piano. Leaning over the bench, he eased the object he was holding on top of the keys, taking care not to press any of them. A small handful of wildflowers. “I’m sorry it ended like this,” he said, voice hushed. “It never should have been this way. First, my dearest Rantaro, and then…” He shook his head.

Kokichi kneeled beside the bench and leaned on it, burrowing his face in his arms. Kaede knelt down on the other end of the bench and rested her chin in her own arms, watching him. Despite how little time they had spent together, she liked Kokichi. His jokes and lies were a bit grating, and he said some truths that were hard to hear, but she had the feeling he meant no harm in the end.

He didn’t sob. He didn’t shake. The only hint that he was crying were the sniffles she heard, followed by thick, trembling sighs. The sound of it brought on more of her own tears and, against her better judgment, Kaede placed her hand on his shoulder. As expected, it fazed through, but it wasn’t as unpleasant as letting Shuichi go completely through her. She let her hand linger.

Kokichi lifted his head and looked in her direction, beyond her, eyes wide and alert even with the drops they held. They ran down his face when he blinked down, unknowingly, at her hand. He reached to touch the cold spot he (presumably) felt, and Kaede moved. Who knew what would happen if their hands brushed, and he _felt_ her? Even so, Kokichi held his hand there on his shoulder, his expression calming, before turning away to shove his face into the crook of his other elbow.

He stayed just like that long after his sniffles cleared up. He was so still and silent that Kaede began to think he had fallen asleep there. Then, he scooted back from the bench and, careful to bump neither it nor the piano, he climbed to his feet. Kaede straightened up, too, ready to see him on his way to the dorms.

Kokichi stared at the piano bench for half a minute, touching his shoulder again. “I… hope you like the flowers…” he whispered, creeping soundlessly to the door.

Not far behind, Kaede replied, “I love them… Thank you.”

**Author's Note:**

> A work I wrote about a year ago in 2018. There was a tumblr that was doing a sort-of rewrite of V3 from the point of view of the deceased characters as ghosts. They gave up the project early, but I started thinking about a Ghost AU, too, and wrote this short scene. It could definitely use some work -- I disagree with my own choice not to have Rantaro angry that Kaede started the killing game -- but given that it was largely meant to be an ode to three of my Kaede ships, I'm just gonna leave it as is for now.


End file.
